12 comments:

I do not know if you saw it or not but Lafayette Bakery (# 2) on Greenwich Avenue has closed. I was not that suprized to see it gone but sad to see it go. As you know it was originally located on Bleecker Street just north of Seventh Avenue South.. I am 56 and was born and resed here as were my late parents. Back then the best bakery in the area was Sutters which was in the shadows of the now closed Lafayette.

Thanks for your Op-Ed in the TIMES about the High Line. I've made four visits within the last four years and each one has been more unpleasant than the last. I fear the same thing happening to the neighborhood of the High Line that began happening in my area of the city, Hell's Kitchen, in the mid-nineties: the developers have taken over. They're driven out all the old Mom and Pop stores and just about anything that doesn't sell food or drink. The neighborhood is positively overrun with tourists and the Bridge and Tunnel party crowd, who have no regard for those of us who live here. Ninth Avenue used to be a flourishing avenue of wonderful little shops, where you could find all sorts of exotic food from every country imaginable at reasonable prices, places where you could buy shoes or have them repaired, hardware stores, vegetable stands, stationery stores, thrift stores, all kinds of interesting places. Now, from 34th to 57th, it's just one long avenue of over=priced restaurants and, mostly, drinking parlors, with disco music and loud, obnoxious patrons spilling out onto the sidewalks to further constrict pedestrian traffic. Apparently the Bloomberg administration thinks this is good. I suppose I might too if I lived in an isolated, centrally air-conditioned townhouse on the Upper East Side, had someone to shop for my groceries and cook them, and didn't have to worry about how much they cost. Oh, and let's not forget: skip the crowds in my heliocopter and get out of town on the weekends when it REALLY becomes a zoo. In the 1970s and 80s New York was seedy, but it had character. Now it feels like New Orleans and a never-ending Mardi Gras. This too will pass but alas, not, I'm afraid, before the few remaining middle class people who live here have all given-up on it.

Can anyone tell me if what I believe I saw being done to Washington Mews is correct? The yellow tape was up and signs were posted that NYU was renovating to keep things historical, but I swear they were pouring cement over the cobblestone. My heart broke and I actually cried, which was easy for me as I am not happy with the "new" WSP. I realize that I am overly sentimental to the Village. It is where most of my family grew up (since 1906) and I was lucky enough to enjoy great years there, but isn't covering the cobblestone taking history away?

Thank you for your sensitivity too negative change and your honest effort too inform the mob. This morning on WBAI ( where it was a pleasure to hear you.) you mentioned a small business bill going through our local government..... Please let us know what this bill is called . I didn't have a pencil handy .......

We'd love to be on your blog roll and radar, tons of images of NYC in the 1940s and 50s. Todd was an extremely prolific photographer interested in capturing quotidian details for posterity. We are trying to maintain his legacy both as artist and as historical observer.

I agree wholeheartedly except on your point of New Orleans reference. I've spent a fair amount of time in Nola and as a Brooklyn native I can fairly tell you that the only place in New Orleans that you can compare the N.Y.of now to is bourbon street. Pretty much anywhere else in Nola feels way more like old N.Y. than N.Y. now does. Bourbon street is the only never ending mardi gras like area of New Orleans and the most tourist trappy. In fact its more laid back areas feel so much like Brooklyn that I feel more at home down there nowadays than I do in my own borough. Just one of many reasons I'm seriously thinking about moving there. I hate what N.Y. has become and even more so Brooklyn. N.Y. is now completely for the wealthy when back in the day there were plenty of areas one could live on a modest salary, that sadly will never again be the case. The same could be said for Brooklyn and that truly makes me sick.

My "Big Apple Dictionary" website (barrypopik.com) has about 12,500 entries, and I try to add 1,500 new entries each year. I am famous for solving the origin of "the Big Apple," the rediscovery of popular statue model Audrey Munson, Yogi Berra quotations, New York jokes, the origins of the "hot dog" and the "hamburger," and much else. Maybe one day I'll be listed here!

Back in 2005, Jeremiah's Vanishing NY wrote an article about an application to demolish the former 1867 stable at 16 West 18th, one of only 6 remaiing stables in the Ladies Mile Historic District, which the Landmark Preservation Commission at the time refused to allow. A new application -- same developer, same architects, same lawyer-is now pending, with a hearing at LPC scheduled for Tuesday, June 21st, 10:45 am. This time they are asking to demolish not one but two, Civil War era buildings, the one on 18th St and another small building at 21 West 17th, and to replace them with two infill sliver buildings, 10 stories on 18th and 13 stories on 17th.

I would like to see your 2005 article, if possible.

I would also like to encourage Jeremiah's Vanishing New York to cover tomorrow's LPC hearing.

And I urge as many people as possible to come to the hearing and offer your support to Ladies Mile residents, businesses and historic preservation organizations opposing demolition of these historically and architecturally significant buildings and supporting preservation of the rich and diverse history and style of the District.